Essay: Understanding Commitment, Engagement, And Performance In Organizational Behavior.

Organizational Commitment, Employee Engagement, and Employee Performance

Discuss about the Organizational Behavior for Business Environment.

Organizational behavior entails the study of people, individuals and groups act in a business environment. It tries to explore how humans behave regarding the organization and also how people behave with others. It interprets the relationship between the whole group, organization or the entire social system (Wagner & Hollenbeck, 2010). Organizational behavior is a field that every business organization should consider since helps build healthy relationships through achieving the personal objectives, those of the organization and the whole social goals. Some of these aspects in the organizational behavior include organizational commitment, employee engagement, and employee commitment (Robbins, 2016). These three aspects are important, and every organization should work to ensure that they have a strategy that provides their positivity because they greatly contribute and determine the employee productivity thus the organizational profitability (Cuyper et al., 2009)

Organizational commitment refers to the extent to which an employee feels committed to the organization. It plays an important role in determining if the employee will be able to stay around to achieve the organizational goals and targets or the employee will leave the organization. Organizational commitment can predict some aspects in a given employee such as the employee’s turnover and performance (Waddell et al., 2017). There are three main types of organizational commitment that are important for consideration by every business organization. These are an affective commitment (job affection), continuance commitment (fear for loss) and normative commitment (obligation to stay) (Ahmad  & Oranye, 2010).

Firstly, regarding affection commitment, the employee develops an emotional feeling of being attached to the organization and affection to work for it. An employee with this type of commitment identifies the organizational values and goals and genuinely feels to belong to the company. Increased job satisfaction increases the employee’s affection commitment. Secondly, continuance commitment is a type of engagement where an employee sticks to the job because of fear of losing the job (Prideaux, 2017). In this case, when the employee compares the loss and benefits derived from leaving the job and realized that the loss is bigger than the benefits that will be acquired. The loss can be a loss of money (salary), profession or skills or social losses. Continuance commitment increases with increase in age and experience (Whittington & Galpin, 2010).

The third type of organizational commitment is normative commitment. This is a type of commitment where an employee feels like he needs to be committed to the organization because they think they have an obligation to stay with the organization. In some cases, employees with normative commitment may not like to stay with an organization, but they feel they should just be there because it is a requirement (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). This type of commitment may arise in an employee because the organization invested money and time in them or other cases because the families at home have stressed to them that it is important for them to be loyal to the organization. Different types of employees can experience any of these organizational commitments. In some cases, the employee may experience one, two or all of the types of commitment at the same time (Duffy et al., 2012).

Types of Organizational Commitment

It is important for organizations to consider increasing the employee’s affection commitment and reduce reliance on continuance and normative commitment to ensure that people feel passionate about their roles and not working as an obligation. Employees with only continuance and normative commitment are unmotivated and mostly feel bored with the job. (Leonaite et al., 2017). Positive organizational change can be achieved by connecting the goals of the employees and those of the organization. Leaders with good management skills are careful about their actions and hence reduce the dependency of an organization on normative and continuance commitment (Simpson, 2009).

Organizational commitment works hand in hand with employee engagement. Employee engagement happens when an employee portrays interest in their jobs and shows the willingness to do more to achieve the results. An engaged employee understand the business environment and always works carefully to ensure that the organization gets a benefit. They portray affection and a lot of dedication for the job (Balzer & Gillespie, 2007). Employee engagement is usually derived from the employee’s internal motivation. Employees usually get engaged through consistent of the values of the organization which could be through keeping promises or explanations why the company could not keep the promises. Therefore, organizations should avoid manipulating the commitment and emotions of the employees since this approach do not last (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008).

Six main elements drive employee engagement. The first element is work. The work should be meaningful to the employees and one that empowers them and has aligned processes. This will promote employee engagement (Osterwalder et al., 2014). Secondly, engagement of employees is promoted by the organizational system and practices which include policies and procedures and the company visions, values, mission and others. People can also promote employee engagement through inspiring leaders, respectful relationships and open communications (Scottish Executive Research, 2007). Also, employee engagement is promoted by opportunities which could be development through training and education. The fifth element is through rewards. Employee engagement increases when they receive rewards which can be recognition, bonuses, and benefits (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). Lastly, job life quality affects the employee commitment. Quality of life can be the physical environment of the employee, work climate, or it may be work-life balance. Business organizations should consider these six factors since they have a direct influence on the employee engagement (Albdour & Altarawneh, 2012).

It is important for organizations to make attempts to measure employee engagement. This can be achieved through the use of frameworks for positive change such as Gallup’s Q12 tool. This tool is used to create transformations in the company for sustainable growth (Hakanen et al., 2008). Improving employee commitment is important since it improves their productivity and therefore the organization should put onboard appropriate strategy to improve employee commitment.

Strategies for Increasing Employee Commitment and Engagement

Employee commitment is the state where an employee feels proud to be identified with an organization and loves their jobs, they willing to do extra miles in performing their tasks. Usually, the commitment of employees germinates from their engagement, and it defines the loyalty that employees have towards an organization (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Committed employees are characterized by a significant desire to continue working for the organization, belief, and acceptance of the goals or values of the organization and willingness to walk extra miles for the benefit of the company (Meyer et al., 2007). Employees who are committed but not engaged are not beneficial to the organization, and it is important to ensure that employees get both motivated and engaged.

There are many ways that an organization can use to increase employee commitment. Firstly, the company objectives should be clear to help the employees make day to day decisions in their jobs. Employee’s commitment can also be achieved through making them gain energy from work, and they, therefore, become more productive. It has also been observed that a challenging work environment can contribute to increased employee commitment. This is because the little sense of achievements gives them the joy of work and therefore wishes to stay longer to work for the organization (Andrew & Sofian, 2012).

Conclusion

In conclusion, organizational commitment, employee engagement and employee commitment are critical aspects of consideration in every organization since they determine the performance and profitability. The three aspects work hand in hand, and it is important that organizations ensure that the employees attain all of the three types. Organizational commitment defines the level to which employs feel committed to the organization which could be through affection for the organization, fear for loss or as an obligation to stay. Organizations should develop strategies that work to ensure that employees get committed to the organization. On the other hand, employee engagement defines the willingness of the employee to do the job and work more to achieve the goals. This increases the productivity of the employees. Lastly, employee commitment defines the extent to which an employee feels proud of the organization. It mostly germinates from employee engagement. Business organizations should develop strategies to promote and encourage organizational commitment, employee engagement, and employee commitment. All these work together to get the best employee productivity.

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